Passionate Politics in the Religious Community
A Sermon by the Rev. Susan Manker-Seale
February 15, 2004
The Greek work for idiot, literally translated, means one who does not participate in politics. That sums up my conviction on the subject.
---Gladys Pyle, former Senator from South Dakota, in Carolyn Warner's The Last Word
We owe so much to the Greeks when it comes to politics and government and the roots of our language. Democracy, Republic--both are of Greek origin, and both derive from roots meaning people. The word politics is from the Greek word meaning citizen or of the city. I looked up idiot, just to verify Gladys Pyle's comment, and the word derives from a Greek word meaning private. I find it interesting that we coin a phrase today that is actually an oxymoron in this sense: the private citizen. How can a citizen, at least in our government-by-the-people, be private, or non-participating? The phrase contradicts itself in definition. In that same sense, I guess the term idiot politician, rather than being another oxymoron, would be a person who is in government, but only concerned for their own private interests, rather than those of the people.
In the 1970's, the women's movement coined the phrase, "The personal is political." What we think of as our private or personal lives are not private or personal in the political arena, as we have learned in the struggles around abortion rights, marriage rights and health care rights, to name a few. We may think our homes are our castles, but all our relationships are political in this world today--maybe they always have been--and how we live together in peace or not, and the demands we make on each other, are an integral part of our lives. We all participate in politics, whether or not we bother to vote, just in the ways we speak with each other on issues of concern. Each statement is a political act. Each compliance. Each act of apathy or avoidance of the issues is a form of political participation, in the non-sense.
We are also religious people. Being religious does not require an object of belief or devotion, but, rather, to coin from the Latin root, concerns those ways we are bound together with each other, whether through beliefs, values, or practices of life. When we choose to join a community, or follow a particular path, of belief, value, or practice, we are being religious. We can also create our own religious communities and religious paths. In this way, we are concerning ourselves with deeper meanings of life and living together, meanings which often underlie the political decisions we make together.
Religion and politics are not separate. They are deeply intertwined, not only in our own psyches, but in the history of all humanity. Religion has informed politics, and vice versa, and gone far beyond informing to dictating what is allowable among a people. Our Separation of Church and State was an effort by our founders to take back religious freedom from the oppressions it had suffered and ensure that choice of belief, value and practice was guaranteed in the political laws. It was not an effort to silence religious influence on politics, nor political influence on religion.
As many of you know, Unitarians and Universalists have been passionate about their political convictions over the centuries. Their religious beliefs, values and practices have led them to certain conclusions about what is the right way to live together in community, as citizens, and they have acted upon those conclusions. The children are learning about some of the more famous Unitarians and Universalists in their religious education classes this year, and they have been comparing these people's acts of conscience to our more modern Principles and Purposes, which can be found in the front of your hymnals, or in reading number 594. Susan B. Anthony and the Suffrage movement is probably the most famous example. The Separation of Church and State did not impede these people of faith in their political work. And their faith did inform their actions in the political arena.
I have been talking about individual Unitarians and Universalists, but congregations can also engage in political activities under certain restrictions. The Radical Religious Right showed us the power of religious communities in the political arena, just as Unitarian Universalists showed political spunk in the Sanctuary movement by harboring refugees. Congregations definitely can engage in political action, as long as they follow certain rules, the main one being that they focus on issues rather than candidates. Congregations may not engage in partisan politics.
What the rules are exactly has been confusing enough to our congregations that the UUA Washington Office for Advocacy came up with a document which they entitled The Real Rules, subtitled: Congregations and IRS Guidelines on Advocacy, Lobbying, and Elections. Our Music Director, Rev. Linda Bunyard, emailed them to me, and you can find them at www.uua.org/uuawo. You have in your hands pages four and five of the document for further reference, the page entitled "Summary: Three Simple Rules," and the page entitled "Do and Do Not."
Note that these are referring to us as a congregation. Individuals may engage in political activity on all levels. Congregations, to retain the Separation of Church and State, and their tax-exempt status, may not engage in partisan activity, but must keep political activities balanced and issues-oriented. The most important one for us today, as we become more and more passionate about the upcoming elections, is on the bottom of the "Do and Do Not" page:
Do not distribute or display partisan campaign literature or voter guides. (p. 5)
Now, I know that someone had set out partisan literature, and in horror, Leah grabbed them up and tossed them out, saving the day for our congregation. Not that we would actually lose our tax-exempt status. In The Real Rules, they say that is extremely rare, the most recent example being in 1995, when "the IRS revoked the status of the Church at Pierce Creek for running a full-page ad in several major newspapers that ended with the question: 'How then can we vote for Bill Clinton?' and added: 'tax-deductible donations for this advertisement gladly accepted. Make donations to: The Church at Pierce Creek.'" (p. 14) Most of the time, infractions result in fines and taxes on the political expenditures.
As a congregation, we aren't engaged in publishing partisan voter ads, but still, we have to be very careful that we don't bring our individual passionate partisan efforts into the realm of the congregation in a way that implies congregational advocacy for a particular candidate, or against another. Individually, we are not proscribed from sharing our partisan views, and people do that here during coffee hour or in workshops, but we must also state that those are our personal views, not an advocacy of this congregation.
No one could speak for this congregation anyway. Not unless we had dealt with an issue and voted on accepting it, just as the representatives of the congregations of the UUA voted on our Principles and Purposes in the early eighties, just as our representatives discuss and vote on issues of immediate witness at the General Assembly every year. But, these are also issues, not people, not politicians, and not political parties. If we want to hear from candidates, we must invite them all, equally. If we want to hand out voter guides, they must address the issues and candidates in a non-partisan manner.
Sometimes, I find that people are so happy to have found this welcoming congregation, that they assume that all the folks here must be of like mind, not just theologically, but politically. They are wrong on both counts, but it takes a while for them to learn to change their language to one of inclusion, rather than talking from that assumption that we are just like them. After all, we are so welcoming, and we listen to each other with open minds and hearts. When we succumb to partisan rhetoric, we forget that those of other minds and hearts are sensitive, too, and loving and open and considerate.
A number of folks have spoken in my presence as if they believed all of us to be Democrats here. I have run across enough Republicans to guess we are between ten and twenty percent Republican. We have Independents and Green Party, too, that I know of. I would guess the other parties are represented as well. It behooves us, as a congregation whose first Principle is "the inherent worth and dignity of every person," who affirm and promote "acceptance of one another," and "A free and responsible search for truth and meaning," as well as "the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process," etc., to treat each other with respect and acceptance as we continue into this election year.
As your minister, I speak from the pulpit on issues all year long, but it is my responsibility to honor the diversity of our congregation, and never assume we have one voice on any issue. Just as I have freedom of the pulpit to speak my truth as I see it, so do you. I will never (I hope) tell you how I think you should vote concerning any candidate or piece of legislation, but I will tell you what I think about the values I cherish and believe are essential to our living together in peace and justice as citizens of an emerging world community. I will tell you stories of injustice, concern and hope, share bits of wisdom from the world's great leaders and religions, and let you know the path I see us walking as a people and where that might be leading us. Every member is responsible for weighing my words in the depths of your own hearts and experiences, and coming to your own conclusions. That is the nature of a non-dogmatic religious community.
The theological freedom we share within Unitarian Universalism is very precious in our world. Not many religious communities operate this way. Precious, too, in the eyes of the world, is the political freedom we practice in the United States of America. Both freedoms are not unrelated. It is good to keep our minds and hearts open to what friends and strangers have to share with us, and to remember there are many paths to truth and justice.
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Northwest Tucson